
?^ Wfc 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

MMI 



I II il nil II I 

009 884 190 8 



^ 



p6nim.liF6« 
pH8^ 



V 



V 



wKSTKRN re:se:rve: 

,. V->''\ — AND— 

vyfortKern ©Kio 3{i£tGrical Society. 



\ J 



\:V 



TRACT NO. 72. 



THE BATTLE OF THE PENINSULA, SEPT. 29, 1812. 

GENERAL WADSWORTH'S DIVISION, OHIO MILITIA. 



BY COLONEL CHARLES WHITTLESEY. 



[Tract No. 51 of the Western Reserve and Northern Ohio 
Historical society, published in December, 1S79, contains a 
paper by the late Colonel Charles Whittlesey upon the part 
taken by General Wadsworth's division of Ohio militia in the 
War of 1812. In the concluding paragraph of that paper the 
writer uses the following words : " It is remarkable that the 
only engagement known to have been fought on the Western 
Reserve was not fully described until after the lapse of half a 
century. We have found only one detailed account of it by a 
party who participated in the affair. It was written by the late 
Honorable Joshua R. Giddings of Ashtabula county, a volun- 
teer from Captain Burnham's company. It Avas first published 
in the Fire Lands Pioneer, Volume I, No. 4, for May, 1759, 
the details of which must be reserved for a future paper." 
The following is Colonel Whittlesey's promised account. 
Aside from its historic value it will possess an added interest 
to our readers in the fact that the honored name of the ven- 
erable writer once more appears as a contributor after his la- 
bors in this life have ended forever. 

An interesting paper upon this same battle, from the pen of 
Honorable A. G. Riddle, appeared upon page 398, Volume 
I, of the Magazine of Western History.] 

Captain Cotton's detachment, seventy-two men, landed on 
the peninsula soon after sunrise. Eight of them were left 
with the boats under Corporal Coffin. Skirmishers under Ser- 
geants Root and Hamilton, with twelve men each, spread 
themselves to the right and left of the trail, in the woods. 
Within ten minutes from the time their feet were on the shore 



\V 



408 The Battle of the Peninsula. 

the forward movement commenced. The command rapidly- 
crossed the peninsula to Ramsdale's place on the lake shore, a 
distance of about eight miles in direction somewhat to the 
west of north. No Indians were there, but the fires seen by 
scouts the day previous where the slaughtered cattle were 
cooked, and other evidences of a savage feast, were abun- 
dant. 

Beyond Ramsdale's house was the wheat field which had 
been already harvested, but required some attention in order 
to make it more secure. This grain was too precious to be 
lost. The force was collected in the field, when Captain 
Cotton concluded to return to the boats, Hamilton and his 
flankers on the right, and Root on the left. 

They had abandoned the expectation of a fight, but had 
not wholly given themselves up to false security. Their 
flankers were still in position, covering the rear. Root's little 
party remained awhile at the wheat field, following leisurely 
past Ramsdale's deserted house, about a mile in the direction 
of the boats, where he was near to the command of Captain 
Cotton. It was between eleven and twelve in the morning 
of a clear and pleasant autumn day. They were moving 
through open timber, the ground covered with a luxurious 
growth of native grass as high as the waists of the men. A 
party of Indians rose from the grass, fired a volley into the 
flankers under Root, gave a savage yell and dropped out of 
sight. Ramsdale's son was killed and one man wounded, 
leaving only nine, each of whom sprang behind a tree. In 
the words of J. R. Giddings, " Root directed his men to 
shelter themselves behind trees, and by his cool and deliber- 
ate movements stimulated them to maintain their ground. 
Whenever an Indian showed any part of his person he was 
sure to receive the salutation of our backwoodsman's rifle. 
The firing was kept up in an irregular manner, constantly 
interspersed with the yells of the Indians, until the little guard 
were reinforced from the main body. As the sound of the 
enemy's rifles first struck the ears of Captain Cotton and his 
party, they stopped short and stood silent for a moment, 
when they began to lead off from the rear without orders and 
without regularity. Many of them raised the Indian yell as 
they started. As they reached the scene of action each ad- 
vanced with circumspection as the whistling of balls informed 
him that he had obtained the post of danger. The firing con- 



The Battle of the Peninsula. 499 

tinued for some fifteen minutes after the first arrival of assist- 
ance from the main body, when it appeared to subside by 
common consent of both parties. As the firing became less 
animated, the yells of the savages grew faint, and the Indians 
were seen to drag off their dead and wounded. About the 
time of these manifestations of a disposition on the part of 
the enemy to retire from the conflict, Captain Cotton ordered 
a retreat. It was a matter of much doubt among the officers 
and men whether the Indians who attacked Root's flank guard 
were the same who appeared in the bay early in the morning, 
and who sunk the boats left by Corporal Coffin and his guards. 
It has always been the opinion of the writer that it was a dif- 
ferent party and far less in numbers. Captain Cotton retired 
and was followed by a large portion of his men. A few re- 
mained with Sergeants Root and Rice and maintained their 
position until the enemy apparently left the field. Mr. Rice 
was orderly sergeant in the company to which the writer be- 
longed. He was a man of great physical power, and while in 
the field exhibited such deliberate courage that he soon after 
received an appointment from the brigadier-general as a 
reward for his gallant conduct. He was also permitted to 
command the next expedition which visited the mouth of the 
bay a week subsequently. When the firing had entirely 
ceased, our intrepid sergeants had a consultation, and thought 
it prudent to retire to where the main body had .taken up a 
position some sixty or eighty rods in the rear of the battle 
ground. Sergeant Hamilton and his guard were so far dis- 
tant at the time of the attack, that they arrived in time to 
share only in a part of the dangers of this skirmish. As soon 
as they reached the party under Captain Cotton, that officer 
proposed to take up a line of march directly for the orchard 
at which they landed in the morning. To this proposal Ser- 
geant Rice would not consent until the dead and wounded 
were brought off-. He was then ordered to take one-half the 
men and bring them away. This order was promptly obeyed. 
The dead and wounded were brought from the scene of action 
to the place where Cotton was waiting with his men. The 
dead were interred in as decent a manner as could be done 
under the circumstances, and the line of march was again re- 
sumed. There were but two dead bodies left on the ground 
at the time of the retreat— Ramsdell, who fell at the first 
fire, and Blackman, who belonged in the southern part of 



500 The Battle of the Peninsula. 

Trumbull county. James S. Bills was shot through the lungs, 
and after being carried back'to where Cotton had made a stand, 
and after leaving his last request with a friend, he died before 
the bodies of Blackman and Ramsdell were interred, and the 
three bodies were buried^together between two logs covered 
with leaves, dirt and rotten wood. There was but one man 
so wounded as to be unable to walk. A ball had struck him 
in the groin, and he was carried on the back of Sergeant 
Rice most of the distance. Rice was a man of great deter- 
mination of purpose, and refused to leave his charge during 
the subsequent skirmish. 

There was a very general expectation that the enemy would 
make an attempt to retrieve their evident discomfiture. They 
had lost some of their men, but had not taken a single scalp, 
which, with them, is regarded as disreputable, particularly 
when they are the aggressors, as in this instance. 

The order of march was the same as it had been previously. 
All proceeded regularly and silently towards the place of 
landing. When the main body moving along the road had ar- 
rived in sight of the improvement at the middle orchard, there 
suddenly appeared two Indians, some thirty or forty rods in 
front of the foremost numbers of our party. The Indians ap- 
peared to have suddenly discovered our men and started to 
run from them. Our men in front made pursuit, while others, 
more cautious than their comrades, called loudly for them to 
stop, assuring them there was danger near. Our friends 
stopped suddenly, and at that instant the whole body of 
Indians fired upon our line, being at farthest not more than 
twenty rods distant, entirely concealed behind a ledge of 
trees that had been prostrated by the wind. It was a most 
unaccountable circumstance that not a man of our party was 
injured at this fire. The Indians were on the right of the 
road, and, of course, between the road and bay. Our party 
betook themselves each to his tree and returned the fire as 
they could catch sight of the enemy. The firing was irregular 
for some three or five minutes, when Sergeant Hamilton, with 
the right flank guard, reached the scene of action. He had 
unconsciously fallen somewhat behind the main body during 
the march. As he advanced he came directly upon the In- 
dians' left wing. His first fire put them to flight, leaving two 
or three of their number on the ground. As they retreated 
they crossed the road in front of the main body, who by this 



The Battle of the Peninsula. 501 

time had been joined by Sergeant Root and the left guard. 
Having crossed the road, the Indians turned about and 
resumed the fire. 

At this time Captain Cotton began to retire towards a log 
building standing within the cleared land. The retreat was 
very irregular, some of the men remaining on the ground and 
keeping up an animated fire upon the enemy until Cotton and 
those who started with him reached the house in which they 
took shelter. Those in the rear at last commenced a hasty 
retreat also, and were pursued by the Indians until they came 
within range of the rifles of those who had found shelter in 
the house. The Indians commenced a fire upon those in the 
house and kept it up for a short time, keeping themselves 
concealed behind the brush and small timber. Captain 
Cotton, with about twenty men, entered this building and 
very handsomely covered the retreat of those who remained 
longest on the field. There were about thirty of those who 
passed by the house and proceeded to the place where we had 
landed in the morning, expecting to find the boats in which 
they might escape across the bay. There were six wounded 
men brought away that evening, making with the guard left 
in the boat thirty-seven. These were joined by those who 
had remained on Cedar Point from the time they left Bull's 
island on their way from Lower Sandusky, so that the whole 
party who reached Huron that night were between forty and 
fifty. The guard and two of the boats were gone. The other 
two boats were scuttled. They dare not venture to the house, 
naturally supposing that it was surrounded by the enemy. 
Some of them pulled off their clothes and attempted to stop 
the holes in one of the boats, so as to enable them to 
cross the bay in it. Others fled at once down the shore of 
the bay in order to get as far from the enemy as they could, 
entertaining a hope that some means would offer by which 
they might cross over to Cedar Point. Others followed, and 
before sunset all those who had not sought shelter in the 
house were on the eastern point of the peninsula with their 
six wounded comrades. The firing was distinctly heard on 
Cedar Point by Corporal Coffin and his guard of seven men, 
who, under a state of extreme anxiety for the fate of their 
companions, put off from the point and lay as near the penin- 
sula as they thought safe from the rifles of the enemy, should 
there be any there. They rejoiced to see their friends com- 



X 



502 The Battle of the Peninsula. 

ing down the point, bringing their wounded, wet with perspir- 
ation, many of them stained with blood, and all appearing 
ready to sink under the fatigues and excitement of nearly 
twenty-four hours' unmitigated effort. 

The boats were small, and one of them was loaded at once 
and crossed to Cedar Point and returned, with the assistance 
of the other took in all that remained on the point of the 
peninsula, and crossed over. All were now collected on the 
beach at Cedar Point. Sergeant Wright was the highest 
officer in command. Eight men were detailed as oarsmen 
and ordered to take in the six wounded men and move 
directly for the mouth of Huron river. I do not recollect 
the number of men placed in the other boat, but believe it 
was eight. The remainder took up the march for Huron by 
land. It was my lot to act as one of the oarsmen on board 
the boat on which the wounded were placed. Daylight was 
fast fading away when we put out from Cedar Point into the 
mouth of the bay. Here we stopped some little time and 
listened in the silence of the evening for any noise that 
might come from the house in which our companions were 
left. Hearing nothing from that distance, we started for the 
mouth of Huron river. We entered the river and arrived 
at a place then called " Sprague's Landing," about a mile 
above the mouth, about one or two o'clock on the morning 
of the thirtieth of September. An advance post was kept at 
that point, and we fortunately found one of the assistant sur- 
geons belonging to the service at that place. We soon started 
a fire in a vacant cabin and placed the wounded in it, and 
delivered them over to the care of the medical officer to 
whom I have alluded, but whose name I am now unable to 
recollect. Having accomplished this, our Sergeant Rice pro- 
posed going to headquarters that night, provided a small 
party would volunteer to accompany him. Anxious that the 
earliest possible information of the situation of Captain Cotton 
and his party on the peninsula should be communicated, some 
eight or ten of us volunteered to accompany our determined 
and persevering sergeant. In the darkness of the night we 
mistook the'road, and finding ourselves on a branch leading 
south, and which left Camp Avery on the right perhaps a 
mile and a half, we attempted to wend our way through the 
forest. We soon lost our course, but wandered through open- 
ings and woods until daylight enabled us to direct our course 



The Battle of the Peiiinsula. 503 

with some degree of correctness. We struck the road near 
what was then called " Abbott's Landing," and reached camp 
a little after sunrise. Arrived at headquarters both officers 
and men were soon made acquainted with the situation of 
our friends who yet remained on the peninsula. But in the 
enfeebled state of our skeleton army it was difficult to obtain 
a sufficient force to send out to relieve them. During the 
forenoon Lieutenant Allen (of the company to which I be- 
longed) succeeded in raising some thirty volunteers, and 
started to the peninsula in order to bring home those we had 
left there. The necessity of this movement will be understood 
when the reader is informed that Captain Cotton and his men 
were destitute of all means of crossing the bay. Lieutenant 
Allen, however, met with difficulty in obtaining boats to con- 
vey his men across the bay, and did not reach Captain Cotton 
and his party until the morning of the first of October. They 
then found our friends in the house, but the enemy were not 
to be seen. 

Soon after Captain Cotton and his men commenced firing 
upon them from the house, they retired out of danger. They 
seemed not to have noticed those who passed by the house 
in order to find the boats, and who then passed down the bay 
to the point of the peninsula, on Monday, during the skir- 
mish. Had they discovered those men, they would doubtless 
have pursued and massacred them all. Being unconscious 
of this, and there being no prospect of effecting any injury to 
those in the house, they retired to the scene of action and 
stripped and scalped two of our dead whom we left on the 
field. They mutilated the body of Simons, who fell during 
the skirmish. His right hand was cut off, and the scalping 
knife of a chief named Omick was left plunged to the hilt in 
his breast. This Indian had previously resided at a small 
village on the east bank of the Pymatuning creek, in the 
township of Wayne, in the county of Ashtabula. I had been 
well acquainted with him for several years, and so had many 
others who were engaged in the combat of that day, some of 
whom declared that they recognized him during the skirmish. 
It is also supposed that he must have recognized some of his 
old acquaintances, and left his knife in the body of Simons 
as a token of triumph. The knife was recognized by some of 
the soldiers from its peculiar handle of carved ivory. The 
Indians took away and secreted the bodies of their own dead. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



504 The Battle of the Peninsula. ® ^^^ 88^ 190 8< 

There were three of our men killed during this latter skirmish. 
Mason lived on Huron river, and cultivated the farm on 
which we were encamped. He came into camp on the 
twenty-eighth, about sunset, volunteered for the expedition 
and accompanied us on our march. He was, shot through 
the lower region of the breast, the ball evidently having 
• passed through some portion of the lungs, as the blood flowed 
from his mouth and nose. A friend took him upon his 
shoulder and attempted to bring him off the field, but as the 
enemy pressed hard upon them. Mason requested his friend 
to set him beside a tree, and give him a gun and leave him to 
his fate. His friend, knowing that at best he could only pro- 
long his life a few moments, sat him down as requested and 
left him. He was seen some moments subsequently by those 
who passed him in haste, .flying before the pursuing enemy. 
They reported him as still sitting up beside the tree, and the 
blood flowing from his mouth and nose. They also stated 
that they heard the report of his musket soon after they 
passed him, and the report of several rifles instantly followed. 
On examining the body, it was found that several balls had 
passed through his breast, and it was generally supposed that 
he fired upon the enemy as they approached him, and that 
in return several Indians fired at him. His body was 
stripped of its clothing and he was scalped. 

On the arrival of Lieutenant Allen and his party at the 
house, Captain Cotton joined him, and they proceeded to 
bury the bodies of those two men. Mingus (I may have for- 
gotten the name of this man, but I think such was the name) 
was also killed during this skirmish. His brother saw him 
fall, immediately seized the body and, raising it upon his 
shoulder, proceeded to the house with it. After the Indians 
had retired out of sight and left our friends somewhat at lei- 
sure, they proceeded to raise a portion of the floor, composed 
of planks split from large timber. They then dug a sort of 
grave and, burying the body, replaced the floor, leaving no 
signs of the body being deposited there. Captain Cotton 
and Lieutenant Allen and his party then recrossed the bay, 
and returned to camp on the evening of the first of October. 
The next morning we again mustered, and the roll of volun- 
teers was called. The names of the killed and wounded 
being noted, we were dismissed, and each returned to his 
own company. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



009 884 190 8 



m 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



009 884 190 8 



p6nnuli(^» 
pH8J 



